February 2006 in the Abacos
The last couple of weeks of February brought warmer temperatures as we continued to tour the Abacos. We island hopped between some of our favorite spots including Hope Town on Elbow Cay and Bakers Bay on Guana Cay while touring some new places – Treasure Cay (which really isn’t a cay, it is part of the island of Great Abaco) and Man O War Cay. Treasure Cay is famous for its stunning beach, having made the Top 10 list of beautiful beaches in the world. The shallow waters that stretch out from its silky shores reflect magnificent shades of turquoise that beg to be photographed. But as we’ve learned, the resulting pictures never seem to fully capture the beauty.
Our visit on Saturday, February 18 to Man O War was synchronized with the “Boater’s Swap Meet” – a huge yard sale that stretches throughout the settlement in which anyone can lay out their spare wares to earn some extra cruising funds. We didn’t have anything worth hawking but we enjoyed browsing the eclectic selection and visiting with the friends that we’ve met while here in the Abacos. That afternoon, after returning to Lucky Peek with our purchase of the day – an ice bucket – we caught up to James and Virginia on Windspirit and Mike and Jan on Imagine a few miles away at an anchorage known as Crawl Bight. They had called us on the VHF to invite us for dinner aboard Imagine. Fresh caught conch, mutton snapper, and slipper lobster. It was a feast! The following day we dinghied around Crawl Bight to snorkel the reef between Guana Cay and Scotland Cay. One of the highlights of the area was the school of large rays that swam ahead of us through the shallow bay as we entered. We noted this as a spot to revisit with Bryan and Allison Mann, who were to arrive in just 10 days!
If this journal entry contained nothing else but the following update, Rod would be completely satisfied. Okay, more than completely satisfied. After we left Crawl Bight we went to the beautiful Bakers Bay anchorage (one of my favorite spots). After setting the hook we dinghied out to the old ship’s channel with Mike and Jan from Imagine in hopes of collecting a few conch for dinner. After an hour or so and only one conch Mike and Jan decided to head back in. Rod was intrigued by the shipwreck that was at the bottom of the ship’s channel, about 25 feet down. He was especially interested in the large fish that had made this their home. I stayed with the dinghy while the mighty spearfisherman (whose dismay over not yet spearing a fish was growing at a rate proportional to every fish James speared) dove down with his spear. His persistence and lung capacity paid off – he surfaced with a 32 inch yellow jack on the end of his spear. His eyes a bit wild with excitement and a large grin escaping the sides of his snorkel. I’m sure he will at some point amend this posting to fill in all the adrenaline laden details since I’m only hitting the most summarized points of the event. I will add that I did not do very well on this fishing adventure. I cried for the speared fish. A hunter I am not. But neither am I a vegetarian. We had two fillets (grilled on our Magma BBQ grill that is connected to our stern rail) that night for dinner. The following night we prepared the remaining 10 fillets and had a dinner party aboard Anejo, with Candy and Les, Terry and Peggy of Attitude, and Robert and Carolyn of Gypsy Common. Two left-over fillets fed Rod and I the next night. It was delicious! Of course Rod could not wait to show James the picture(s) of his bounty and he brings it up in casual conversation every chance he gets.
